Blog, Editorials, Featured
Trucker’s Slowdown-Pros & Cons
By MrBoyd • Mar 29th, 2008 • Category: Blog, Editorials, FeaturedThere is talk today of a trucker’s slowdown or downright strike with the next week or so. It all is an effort to let the general public , the lawmakers, rulemakers, and industry, know just what a bind truck drivers are in! Because of our deep involvement in the trucking industry, we too are squeezed between a rock and a hard place. We face ever increasing fuel prices, while struggling with a shortage of business. We have trucking companies and drivers who are trying to get us to drop our rates. Even though my costs per mile have gone up by about 15 cents since November, I have not increased my rates.
Will a slowdown or other type of protest work? Who knows? What is your opinion? Like noses, everyone has an opinion…except me!
I don’t know how I feel about it. I know full well the crisis that we are experiencing. Like all of you, my expenses are going up, my business is down, and I don’t know what to do about it.
As a general rule, I don’t think the public even thinks about the plight of truckers and trucking relating industry. Most of them do not realize how critical trucks are to this nation’s economy, to their daily life, even to their own livelihood. They don’t see us as individuals. They rarely look into the cab to see the human being behind the wheel. It just is not in their realm of conscientiousness. For that reason, a protest of some type might raise their awareness.
That is a two edged sword. There is good awareness, and bad awareness. Theoretically, good awareness would lead them to more letter writing to the big oil companies, regulators and lawmakers. If that is the case, we might get something done.
On the other hand, violence could lead to bad awareness, bad press. Already, I have read posts by truck drivers threatening violence against people who do continue to work or to buy fuel during the protests. In my opinion, violence is likely. I would rather believe that would not happen, but history tells us otherwise. I remember the fuel protests of the mid-70’s. I lived in Albuquerque back in those days, and I remember truckers driving around the truck stops like in a picket line. There WAS violence when other truckers tried to break through the lines either to get fuel or to get out of the parking lots to get back on the road.
That violence resulted in a public opinion backlash. It reinforced the stereotypes of the news media and general public. The media and the public have this image of truckers as neanderthals who are uneducated, backwards and violent people. You and I know they couldn’t be further from the truth. In my experience, truckers are far more diverse and interesting than that. While some drivers meet the public’s expectations, I know some highly educated, very smart truck drivers (and pilot car operators as well). Some of them are highly successful business people. The public doesn’t know that…so when they see reports of violence by and among truck drivers, they will believe that their opinion of truck drivers is accurate.
The protests are going to happen, regardless of what we say. The violence likely will happen as well. It is up to us to let the public and the news media know that is a very small minority in our industry. We need to ensure that the public hears us as law abiding, hardworking people who need their help. We need to promote nonviolence among our truck driving brothers and sisters.
If I am on a load I will follow the lead of the driver I am with. I will top off all my fuel tanks on Monday so I am ready to go. So long as there is no reported violence, I will support the protests. Other than that, I can’t say. It is a problem for me. Maybe it is for you as well.
MrBoyd is a professional pilot car/ vehicle escort driver licensed in the 48 contiguous states. He offers high pole service, professional demeanor, and is NUTS about your safety!!!
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I think your prediction regarding violence could be accurate.
In Pennsylvania, talk on the citizens’ band has been inflammatory, with guys arguing and making violent threats days in advance of the proposed strike. Some say a strike will help nothing, and the best way to effect change is to go through political channels. Others boast that they’ve already stocked up on food and plan to sit it out in an unofficial moratorium on all items sold in truck stops.
In observing that the public knows little about the plights and predicaments of truck drivers (and other associated professionals, such as escorts) you’re absolutely correct. Hackneyed though the sayings may be, it’s true beyond question that without the trucks America would stop. Clearly action needs to be taken in response to the nascent dilemma, but the community can’t even seem reach a consensus about what exactly should be done.
Though the risk of violence hinders the cause and furthers those negative (and grossly inaccurate) stereotypes, it may yet be a necessary side-effect, for the nation faces nothing less than a complete shutdown of infrastructure should the problems drivers face become too great…a thing we can ill afford. This may be the eye-opener we road runners have been waiting for, or it may be an ineffectual farce.
One thing, however, I know for certain: company drivers are caught between a rock and the business end of a 379 Pete. Refusing to work would likely cost us our jobs, while continuing would earn us the ire of those who don’t have to answer directly to a company, to say nothing of the frustration we feel at being unable to support an effort that directly effects our livelihoods.
I’ll be driving during the proposed strike, and I won’t feel like a traitor for doing so. Some conflicts have no clear denouement. My wishes are the best for those who have the freedom to do otherwise.